Questions regarding license

Tuesday 25 December 2007 7:16:29 am

Hello,

yet another thread regarding the license issue. Sorry ;-)

After spending some hours in the forum reading threads about the issue of license, I have still some questions.

I want to describe what I think what I've already understood. Please correct my statements, if neccessary.
Also I want to describe my problems with the understanding of the license, too. I'm looking at this from a legal perspective, not moral, so that it is just fair to contribute extensions etc. back to the community is clear in my mind.

1.) GPL does not mean free of charge. But eZ Publish ist free of charge with the GPL license.
citation from http://ez.no/ezpublish "It is available as a free Open Source distribution and serves as the foundation for the rest of the eZ Publish Product Family."

2.) While reading different threads about the license issue I got the feeling that there a some legal restrictions using ez publish (for instance regarding the license of extensions).
Becaus of that feeling I thought about looking for an other CMS, for instance Joomla. But on the other hand, what applies for ez publish applies also for any other CMS under the GPL and vice versa. Am I right?

3.) If you edit software under the gpl these edited code ist also under the gpl.
The same applies to extensions programmed for the software.
I my opinion it ist most important to define the term "extension":
The content (text, images, stylesheets, javascript files) that I create for a web project is not an extension. Am I right? What about templates and new datatypes defined in ez publish?
Is it mandatory to publish these changes/extensions?

4.) Another question regards the issue of using ezpublish for customer projects. As far as I know it is possible to use it, if you do not rebrand it.

5.) Rebranding is forbidden for ezpublish using gpl license. So it is not allowed to remove the references and copyright note to ez publish etc. This applies to the backend. But do I have to place a hint on the webseite (frontend)?

6.) I find it quite hard to recognize products free of charge and products with costs on the ez publish website.
For instance: Is eZ Flow free of charge? Is eZ newsletter free of charge? On http://ez.no/ez_newsletter there are some pricing information. Are these prices for the product or is it an optional offer ( installation/monitoring/training etc.) ?

Thanks in advance and happy christmas
Bene

Thursday 27 December 2007 12:48:39 am

I've gone the same way some weeks ago. Still have some little doubts, but some things became quite clear, I think. It's all about understanding GPL rather than eZ Publish.

<i>1.) GPL does not mean free of charge. But eZ Publish ist free of charge with the GPL license (...)</i>
<b>Yes, eZ Publish under GPL is free of charge.</b>

<i>2.) (...) But on the other hand, what applies for ez publish applies also for any other CMS under the GPL and vice versa. Am I right?</i>
<b>I'd guess so.</b>

<i>3.) If you edit software under the gpl these edited code ist also under the gpl.
The same applies to extensions programmed for the software.
I my opinion it ist most important to define the term "extension":
The content (text, images, stylesheets, javascript files) that I create for a web project is not an extension. Am I right? What about templates and new datatypes defined in ez publish?
Is it mandatory to publish these changes/extensions?</i>
<b>As far as I have understood this, GPL grants you freedom to modify software in any desired way as well as freedom (not) to share it. Then, if you decide to share, the key thing is to determine whether your modification is a derivative work. If so, it MUST be published under GPL. If a separable part of that modification is not a derivative code that can be reasonably considered your own, then you can publish this part under any other licensing model that fits you.
Here's little something about definitions in eZ Publish context:
http://ez.no/ezpublish/faq</b>

<i>4.) Another question regards the issue of using ezpublish for customer projects. As far as I know it is possible to use it, if you do not rebrand it.</i>
<b>Yes.</b>

<i>5.) Rebranding is forbidden for ezpublish using gpl license. So it is not allowed to remove the references and copyright note to ez publish etc. This applies to the backend. But do I have to place a hint on the webseite (frontend)?</i>
<b>I believe rebranding means distributing under a different name/logo etc (in simple terms), so that someone else doesn't know the product's origin. When you remove "eZ signs" from the frontend, that does not necessarily stand rebranding in my opinion. There are still lots of other copyright and licence notices, which GPL disallows to remove.</b>

--
Company: mediaSELF Sp. z o.o., http://www.mediaself.pl
eZ references: http://ez.no/partners/worldwide_partners/mediaself
eZ certified developer: http://ez.no/certification/verify/272585
eZ blog: http://ez.ryba.eu

Wednesday 19 November 2008 4:22:58 am

Hi

so Is eZ newsletter free of charge? under GPL license ? or any other extension ?

what does mean under GPL license if we propose a solution to a client ? What are the obligations of the client with this kind of license ? (GPL)

Thx